Ms. West: Good morning Mr. Booth. Thank
you for giving us this interview. Please tell us a little bit about your
early history, please.

Mr. Booth: I was the second son of Eugenia
and Russell Booth. I had two brothers and a cousin who was also raised
by my parents. We lived in Red Bank, New Jersey. Right after the Depression,
we were taught many skills and different things by our parents. My mother
was very, very keen on us all becoming educated. During our early childhood,
we all showed an interest in sports. On the high school level, we all
played basketball and other sports. All of us received scholarships to
college, and all of us graduated from college.

Ms. West: You were educated in Red Bank,
New Jersey?

Mr. Booth: Yes, in Red Bank, New Jersey.
My older brother went to Howard University, I was at West Virginia State,
my brother Russell went to Syracuse, and my baby brother went to Dartmouth.
We all completed school and came back to various areas to live.

Ms. West: Could you tell us something
about your childhood in Red Bank?

Mr. Booth: There are several people
who were very key in the Red Bank area. They were key people to me. One
was Dr. Parker, Sr. He was an idol to me and to mostly everyone else in
Red Bank.

Ms. West: Why was this?

Mr. Booth: Well, not only did he give
me birth, but his views and opinions were so tremendous. I used to go
home at night and go over whatever he would say to me. Sometimes I would
go to visit him after school and just talk to him, to hear his views.
He was a very intelligent man.

Ms. West: So he had a profound interest
in youngsters and in your life?

Mr. Booth: Yes. He gave a lot of information
to me and to my brothers. He was also instrumental in telling all youngsters
that they needed an education. I was so happy that I was able to share
his life. After completing high school, I went to West Virginia College
and then came back to this area, not knowing just what I wanted to do.
So I went to work doing various kinds of things. When the opportunity
came about teaching, I applied for a job at Red Bank Regional High School.

Ms. West: And what year was that?

Mr. Booth: In 1957, I think it was.
And then I also started coaching track. An opening came in basketball,
so I applied to be the head coach in basketball at Red Bank Regional High
School. I received that job, and I coached for fifteen years there. I
coached the track team for twenty-some years also. During that time,
I had the pleasure to send many a youngster to college on scholarships.
As of now, they come back and the feedback is tremendous. I have a tremendous
feeling to see and hear from them.

Ms. West: So what locations in Monmouth
County will have a personal significance to you?

Mr. Booth: All of them in this county.

Ms. West: And why is that?

Mr. Booth: Because I could see how it
goes. When I was a youngster coming up, there were very few vocations
that a person could choose from. Most of the areas here in Monmouth County
were farm areas, and that was the main type of vocation for people in
this area. We had one or two factories that you could work in. But to
see how things just grew from the land is unbelievable.

Ms. West: So did you travel extensively
throughout the county?

Mr. Booth: Yes. I have traveled over
most of the county. I adore some parts of it. Some parts where the farmlands
were are not farmlands anymore. But I can still look back and identify
them. Red Bank also had a very, very important thing that I was proud
to be a part of. They used to have a professional baseball field in Red
Bank. We used to see all the professional Negro teams play here. We used
to see House of Davids, Satchell Paige, Josh Gibson, and just the gamut
of all the players. They had night baseball there, also. As youngsters,
we used to play there.

Ms. West: This is a field that just
Negro teams played on?

Mr. Booth: No, all teams played on it.
But I did have the privilege of seeing some of the great Negro teams play
there.

Ms. West: And that's in Red Bank, right?

Dr. James Parker, Sr.

Mr. Booth: It was in Red Bank, but
it's not there anymore. It's a housing development now. A lot of changes
happened in the area. As I said, Dr. Parker was my idol. Coming up,
I used to wonder why. When I was young, I didn't look at things like I do
now. But I noticed that most of the people in Red Bank were either homeowners
or intending to buy. You didn't have any hotels, and you didn't have any
places for people to live other than a home. And I thought at first that was
a bad thing. And then one day I was discussing with Dr. Parker the impact it
would have on Red Bank to have other kinds of housing here. And he said we didn't need any low-income housing in
Red Bank. He said if we got it, they would put it on the West Side of Red
Bank.

Ms. West: Why the West Side?

Mr. Booth: Well, that's where most of
the Negroes lived, on the West Side. And Dr. Parker said we didn't want that
here. He said that would be when Red Bank would lose control of Red Bank. And
I didn't realize what he was saying to me. I heard the words, but I didn't
know what it meant. It had no impact on me. So as I grew older, I kept that
in my mind. And then I watched Red Bank accept loans and grants from the
government, and then they put up a low-rent project. And I saw Red Bank
deteriorate.

Ms. West: And it was put up on the
West Side, as Dr. Parker had said?

Mr. Booth: On the West Side. That's
where they built it, so his foresight was tremendous. He knew the outcome. It
was unbelievable. As I got older, my parents passed on, and I moved back into the
home where I was born. And this was after this project was built. I stayed
there two years, and I couldn't sleep at night with all the noise, etc. And
then I knew exactly what Dr. Parker had meant. And Red Bank couldn't control
it, because federal money was put into this project. And then the government
controls things like that. People then lost interest in their homes. Prior to that people took pride in their homes and property.
After the project you could see a
decline in Red Bank. I have always said that was a tremendous decline, and I
was forewarned of it by Dr. Parker. He said it would happen, and it sure did.
It was a very sad situation. I moved to Tinton Falls, and stayed there for
about twenty-five years. Then I moved to Neptune. When I first married, I had
to live in Neptune because it was the only place where you could get an
apartment. There were no other apartments. There were none in Red Bank and none anywhere else.

Ms. West: So you are saying that was
the only place you could get an apartment. Could you elaborate on that,
please?

Mr. Booth: We had no places for Blacks
to live. There were no apartment buildings for Black people to live. I am
going back into the 1950s, and there were no homes, either. We were told many
times, "Why would you want a home?" or "You would have to have
too much money" and all kinds of different things to discourage us from
buying a home. But it was hard even to get an apartment. You had to put your name
down, they had to interview you, and getting an apartment was like buying a
house. But Neptune was the only place where young Blacks could rent an
apartment.

Ms. West: Entertainment-wise, what did
Black people do in the county? Was there anything here for them?

Mr. Booth: Oh, yes. Musically, you could
always find entertainment. We used to go to the theatres, and mostly the
nightclubs in Asbury. You could get entertainment if you liked music.
Your theatres had entertainment as well, like Long Branch and Asbury,
and sometimes in Red Bank. The Count Basie Theatre sometimes had entertainment.
It used to be called the Carlton Theatre. Every so often they would give
a show or would have some type of a talent.

Ms. West: Live entertainment.

Mr. Booth: Mostly the entertainment
was live back then. We saw Bo Jangles. Most of the entertainers
would come to this area because of the shore. And we used to see them then.
We had an Armory in Asbury Park where you could go and see live
entertainment. Every Friday and Saturday night, they would have somebody
there singing or playing. And that's the way we received our entertainment,
unless we went to New York.

Ms. West: Going back to your youth
before we get too far into our conversation, what type of student were you?
Did you like school or have any particular interests or favorite subjects?

Mr. Booth: I liked school, not as much
as I should have as a youngster. I was a boy that loved outdoor activity. I
had a boat at a young age, and I used to spend time out on the boat with my
dog. I went fishing, hunting, and those kinds of things. I could have spent
more time studying, as I look back now.

Ms. West: So where would you take your
boat?

Mr. Booth: Oh, we would go all up and
down the Navesink River. Sometimes we would go all the way down to Sea Bright
on the river. And sometimes we would take it and go up all the way up to
Shadow Lake up to the Pike.

Ms. West: Where was Shadow Lake?

Mr. Booth: That's the lake up in
Lincroft. We used to follow the river where it meanders all around, and I had
a little kayak, so I was able to pick it up and carry it. It was a little
two-seater, so it made it nice. When I went to college, I left it for my
brother, and he ripped it. And that was the end of the kayak.

Ms. West: So you have good memories of
your youth?

Mr. Booth: Yes, I do. We had a lot of
areas that we could play baseball, football, basketball, etc.

Ms. West: What were your favorite
games to play?

Mr. Booth: I used to like basketball,
and swimming I loved. Every summer they used to have swimming down at the
boat races in Red Bank. A couple of years I won a race down there.

Ms. West: And what boat races were these?
Did they have a name?

Mr. Booth: Regatta. And after the
Regatta, they used to have swimming races for youngsters in the area. And it
was a big thing for the kids back then.

Ms. West: Who sponsored that?

Mr. Booth: The town of Red Bank. They
sponsored most of the activities back then. There was not a Parks and
Recreation Department back then, but it was the borough that sponsored
those activities. Now you have activities sponsored by your different
clubs in Red Bank, and the YMCA sponsors a lot of activities. So the youngsters
are able to get a good outlook.

Ms. West: Do you have any keepsakes or
memorabilia from your youth?

Mr. Booth: No, I played on an all-star
team when I was in high school. I played with some guys in college who were
tremendous athletes, and I had the privilege to play with them. One of them
played in the NBA and went on to become a coach of the Detroit Pistons. I had
a brother who was very, very high in the eyes of people in the professional
sport of basketball until the War broke out.

Ms. West: World War II?

Mr. Booth: No, the Korean War or
Conflict. After that, he decided he had better raise a family and just didn't
bother with it anymore.

Ms. West: Did you like to read books
or anything when you were a youngster?

Mr. Booth: Yes, I did. I liked to read, believe
it or not.

Ms. West: Did you have a favorite
author?

Mr. Booth: Shakespeare was great. Books were precious. One book
that we had to read was the Bible. We spent a lot of time reading that. I
used to have to go and read to my uncle almost two or three times a week. He
would insist that we do that. And he used to check us out on our reading.

Ms. West: Before the advent of
television, did you have any favorite radio programs?

Mr. Booth: We only had one: we
used to listen to The Lone Ranger. I think it came on three times
a week, and we were only allowed to listen to it one night a week. We had to
do our studies and homework, and we had chores to do. We didn't have time for
too much radio. I had to go to choir practice, and things were different
then. Then you had to involve yourself in different kinds of things like
choir, which would take two nights a week. Then you had school activities you
were involved in, like we were involved in basketball, and that would be two
nights a week. Saturday night, more or less, you would spend with the family
or went visiting. And Sunday was church.

Ms. West: You come from a very
close-knit family with a very strong background.

Mr. Booth: Oh, yes, very close. Years ago,
your mother was the ruler of the house. She was the ruler and your father
was the enforcer. Our mother was five foot eleven and she could take care
of each and all of us. She had a pretty good size on her, so we obeyed
her.

Ms. West: Did you have any heroes or
heroines?

Mr. Booth: I had the opportunity to
meet Dr. Parker's wife's cousin in West Virginia. He was a doctor, and his
name was Dr. Jones. He was like Dr. Parker, and he was one of the first Black professionals in Charleston, West Virginia. He was a dentist, and Dr. Parker
was a doctor. I used to leave campus and go to Dr. Jones' office on Saturdays
and visit and talk to him. He used to inspire me, when I was in West
Virginia. He was quite a man. I spent a lot of time around older people, and
I have always had that feeling for older people. I felt I could learn so much
from them. Years ago, I thought that the younger people would be playing and
distracting me from what was going on, but you could get knowledge and learn things
from the older people. So I spent a lot of time with older people. Today, I
also do.

Ms. West: I was thinking of Dr. Parker
in medicine. How has the practice of medicine changed here in the county
from when you were a youngster?

Mr. Booth: Dr. Parker would come out
to your house years ago. I thought that was tremendous. He would be right
there. Before you could get off the phone, he would be right there taking
care of you. And he took care of all of Red Bank and other places, as well.
But medicine has progressed, and his son is a tremendous doctor and person,
as well.

Ms. West: And he is still practicing.

Mr. Booth: Yes, I enjoy talking to
him. We both have an interest in jazz, and I listen to a lot of jazz.

Ms. West: Do you remember the first
movie that you ever saw?

Mr. Booth: I would rather go play
basketball or football. I'm still not a movie person. My children and
grandchildren go to movies. But myself, I'm not a movie person. When I used
to go to the movies, the movies used to watch me. I wouldn't watch the
movies. That's like television. If it's not something that has a lot of
activity to it, it will watch me. I won't watch it too long.

Ms. West: Who is the first President
that you remember?

Mr. Booth: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ms. West: What do you remember about
him?

Mr. Booth: I thought he was a
tremendous man.

Ms. West: And why was that?

Mr. Booth: Some of the things he did
for the working class of people. WPA and different programs that he
instituted.

Ms. West: And what was the WPA?

Mr. Booth: It was a work program for
people who are unable to have jobs. They created jobs in Monmouth County,
where there was a big work program.

Ms. West: And you remember the New
Deal?

Mr. Booth: Oh, yes. I remember some of Roosevelt's
speeches, especially the war speeches. He said he didn't like war, no
one in his family did, and even his dog didn't like war.

Ms. West: This is World War II you are
referring to?

Mr. Booth: Yes. I thought he was a
very good President.

Ms. West: You say you like jazz. Did
you always like jazz?

Mr. Booth: I always loved music, and
my middle name is Hayes. My mother said that is because she thought I was
going to be a singer because I used to holler all the time. So she said she
would name me after Roland Hayes.

Ms. West: Oh, ok, now I see the
significance.

Mr. Booth: But I cannot sing, I can
only listen. And I listen quite a bit.

Ms. West: As a teacher in Red Bank,
how long were you an educator? And did you always work in the Red Bank school
system?

Mr. Booth: Always in the Red Bank
school system.

Ms. West: In the high school?

Mr. Booth: Yes, always at Red Bank
Regional High School. It was Red Bank High School, and then it changed over
to Red Bank Regional when the three towns came together. I
became the first Negro basketball coach in Monmouth County. I had quite a few
experiences when that happened; so did my team and people in the area.

Ms. West: Please relate them.

Mr. Booth: There was the experience of
people accepting the fact
that Black people could coach as well as anybody else. On one occasion, I had the
misfortune of almost having a riot at one of our games. It wasn't by our team
or my players or anything, it was started by this other team calling names to
our players. Our team was a mixed team, white and Black. One of the white
youngsters came over to me when they called time out, and he said,
"Coach, you better speak to that other coach because their team members
are calling our guys some bad names. The names are such that I'm becoming
mad." I did call time out, and I spoke to the coach about it. He said,
"Oh, my guys would never do anything like that." And I told him the
young man who told me this was not lying; he wouldn't lie about something
like that. So I asked him to please speak to his team about it. We came down
here to play basketball, and this isn't a name-calling contest. It went on such
that it got very heated, and we were winning the game. Then the other team
really became upset and started name calling worse than before, and it got
out of hand. We had to call the game. It was very unfortunate, and it was
the worst experience I ever had as a coach. And that was in basketball.
Coaching track, I never ran into anything like that.

Ms. West: What year was that, do you
recall?

Mr. Booth: About 1975.

Ms. West: Oh, that recent?

Mr. Booth: Oh yes. It was very bad.
But we never had that problem coaching track, because it's more of an
individual thing with running, throwing, or jumping. I think you had a better
attitude when you are involved in track.

Ms. West: Yes, because you wouldn't
call that a contact sport. Is that the reason?

Mr. Booth: That's one of the reasons,
I think so. I was fortunate to be asked to go out to Colorado Springs to the
Olympic Training Center twice, and that was another great experience. I had
several youngsters who were competing on the national level, and I went out
there.

Ms. West: Who picked you to go?

Mr. Booth: The Olympic Training Center.

Ms. West: But who sent you?

Mr. Booth: The school sent me after
the invitation that my athlete and I received. They had a very profitable fundraiser and they sent us out. I went out with the young lady who
is now Assistant Dean of the University of Virginia.

Warren and Sonya Booth with
Mr. Booth's grandchildren

Ms. West: You have never spoken of
your family…your wife, your children, etc.

Mr. Booth: Well, this time I have been
married twelve years to my wife, Sonya. We don't have any children together,
but she has children by a previous marriage, as I have. All of her children
and mine have finished school, and the youngest one is going to college now.
So we are very happy for that. Now we just try to spend time with the kids. We visit
them and the grandkids.

Ms. West: Do any of them live locally?

Mr. Booth: We have two in this area, but they are all over the world.

Ms. West: I guess like most families,
the world has become so small. Before you had one little nucleus, and that's
where generations were. But not any more.

Mr. Booth: The family stayed in one
place years ago.

Ms. West: What would you say is your
greatest achievement in life?

Mr. Booth: I try to help others. I
have always tried to help youngsters, and I have spent a lot of time with
young people. During my years, I have done just about anything you could do
with a youngster, like the Boy Scouts, teaching them how to play sports, and
how to become better people. You always have to bring in that
power of belief. And youngsters, to me, are very, very fascinating. I spend a
lot of time with young people.

Ms. West: Did you ever have any
hobbies?

Mr. Booth: I had several. One is that
I like to collect jazz albums, records. I like to do that. That's my main
hobby.

Ms. West: Who are your favorite jazz
artists?

Mr. Booth: I like all your older
artists, like Basie, Ellington, Sarah, and Ella.

Ms. West: So Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, and
Duke Ellington. Two hundred years from today, someone will pull this up,
and we need their full names because they may not know them.

Mr. Booth: Count Basie was from Red Bank.
They used to call him the Red Bank Kid. Duke Ellington. And Sarah Vaughan
was from Newark. Then you had Ella Fitzgerald, and that is another favorite
of mine. One of the younger ones that I like is Kenny G. I love Kenny
G, he is tremendous. And I have several others.

Ms. West: What would you say is the
most unusual thing about yourself?

Mr. Booth: Unusual? The ability to
listen. I like to listen.

Ms. West: That is unusual, because
most of us don't have that ability.

Mr. Booth: I like to listen, and
that's why I like older people. I used to let them do the talking, and they
used to like people to listen to them. And I am a very good listener.

Ms. West: You are a rare breed.

Mr. Booth: Young people like to talk
today. So I can listen to them. I have a date with my granddaughter in a
little while. I like to take her out to dinner, and I know she is going to be
talking.

Ms. West: If you had to describe your
life as a roadmap, how would you describe it? Smooth? Rocky? Up and down?

Mr. Booth: Well, it wasn't too smooth.
I would say it was just like any other road that you would travel down. You
have your ins and outs and your ups and downs. But it wasn't too smooth. But
then again, when you look at it, life has been smooth. The fact that I wake up every day
is the most positive thing that I know. It gives me a chance at the wonderful
things that are here, so it gives me another shot at things. So I enjoy the
fact that I am waking up.

Ms. West: As you look back over your
life and see the things that you have accomplished, have you accomplished the
things that you thought you would? Did you do what you thought you would be
doing? When you were sitting down as a child and doing a little bit of
dreaming, has any of that come to pass or is it completely different?

Mr. Booth: Well, I hope I never reach
the point in my life where I say that I have completed everything. There
still are so many things I would like to do.

Ms. West: Such as…

Mr. Booth: Help people.

Ms. West: Help them in what regard?

Mr. Booth: Help all people to get
along, first of all. To help them understand and listen. Those things are so
important; to love one another is important. These are the kinds of things I don't think we are
experiencing in life today. I try
to let most of the people I come in contact with know that, and I tell them to pass it along to anybody they know. I
just hope I can continue.

Ms. West: If a youngster came to you
today, or one of your grandchildren, what kind of advice would you give them?

Mr. Booth: First of all, I would tell
them that you have to honor your parents and obey them. That is the first
starting point. You have to believe in yourself. If you can believe in
yourself and believe in God, then you can believe you can do something. I
also would tell them that you have to strive for the highest point that you
think you can make. The only way to do that is by studying and learning as
much as possible. As you said, that's where you
want to start. You can learn so much on the Internet. And we try to impress that on our
children. I try to get on the Internet every day so I can learn something
new. I like it. So I would tell the youngsters to learn as much as they
possibly can.

Ms. West: What would you say are the
milestones in your life?

Mr. Booth: That's a hard question. I don't look at
life as milestones. I look at it as if I have never done enough, and I never can do
enough. Accomplishments, I don't look at them too well. I think those are
things that we all should do, things that we must do. Whatever I have that I
can offer to another person, I just do it. And it's done out of my heart. And
I don't look for any reward or recognition or anything. I don't think we
should look for those things.

Ms. West: What important legacy would
you have to leave to your family, friends, or whomever?

Mr. Booth: As I tell my family and
children, spend as much time with the people you care for when they are
alive, regardless of where they are. You make a point to go visit them and
spend time with them. You love them, and you love everybody that you come in
contact with. Love is a very important thing. It's very, very important.

Ms. West: What point of your life, if
any, would you like to relive?

Mr. Booth: I feel as if I'm just
starting to live right now. (laughter) So the rest of my life I would love to
relive. As I said before, every day is a blessing. So I would love to relive
the rest of my life. I would not go back and change anything, I don't believe
in that. I would just like to continue.

Ms. West: What major changes have you
seen in the county and in the country over your lifetime, or as part of
your life, because you have a long way to go yet?

Mr. Booth: One of the things I am
still trying to deal with is the lack of respect that children and youngsters
show to their parents today. That bothers me. Another thing that bothers me
is that you take a youngster today and tell them they don't have to salute
the flag if they don't want to. They don't have to say prayers if they don't
want to. And then we stand up in court, and the first thing they tell you do
is to raise your hand, put it on the Bible, and say, "So help you
God." And they swear you in. To me, that's a double standard. They
take all the stuff out of school, but when you get out of school it's
different. Any time you want to make a law or something like that, you have
to swear yourself in with "So help me, God." I am very disturbed
over that. I'm still working on that, and I have a long way to go to
understand that. But I hope I will some day.

Ms. West: Having said that, what are
your deepest values?

Mr. Booth: Well, I love to love
people. I think that's probably my deepest value. I try to respect people,
and that is respect for all people. When I was in college, there was a group
of us fellows that got together, and we had an organization that dealt with
all people. I don't like these organizations that deal with just some people.
I think everybody should be included in whatever you do. Race has nothing to
do with it, and color has nothing to do with it. Religion has nothing to do
with it. It's all people. I think if you would look at a person just as a
person, we'd be better off than looking at different races. We are all human.
I got in trouble over that once. I wrote that on my paper in college. When it
asked what race I belonged to, I wrote the human race. And man, I really got
laid out for that! They thought I was being smart. But I wasn't really being
smart, that is the way I felt about that situation. We are all human beings,
and that is the only race that I know. But we have a long way to go with that
race thing.

Ms. West: Oh, yes.

Mr. Booth: I think one day it will
come about that we are just one human race. And it would be a fantastic
thing.

Ms. West: What are your personal
strengths?

Mr. Booth: The ability to know that I
have my wife on my side. She is one of my strengths and plays an important
part in my life. Another one of my strengths is the ability to look at things and try to see a positive
point in whatever the situation might be. If
there is something to do, then go do it. Don't wait around for someone else
to do it.

Ms. West: About eight months ago
everyone was talking about the new millennium and expecting great changes and
hoping for wonderful things to happen. What are your expectations and
hopes for this millennium?

Mr. Booth: As I said before, for
people to get along together. That's my main expectation. I would like to see
all people get along, everybody. That is one thing I would love to see.